Luo Jiu did a rough calculation in her head. “My mental arithmetic says it should be enough, but food is our priority. We should buy more rather than less—we absolutely have to get enough. We must buy all the necessities. When we go back tonight, I’ll make a detailed table and calculate everything properly.”
Zhong Jialing squeezed over and said, “Why are you worrying about not having enough money to spend? In all the years I’ve been alive, I’ve never had a time when I didn’t have enough money. If I run out, my parents will give me more, so stop worrying about it. Hurry up and look at more meat. We haven’t placed orders for so much of it yet—how am I supposed to pay?”
At her urging, everyone continued sweeping through the various meat shops.
Seven thousand pounds of beef, seven thousand pounds of mutton, six thousand free-range chickens, two thousand fat geese, and two thousand ducks—all to be delivered to No. 88 Fengshan Road.
For making whole roasted lamb in the future, they also ordered twenty lambs born that year. Lamb had the most tender meat, and making shredded whole roasted lamb with it would be absolutely incredible.
Once they had nearly finished ordering the meat, they moved on to the vegetable section.
Potatoes were an important everyday vegetable. They could be made into potato cakes and eaten as a staple food. They could also be made into shredded potatoes, potato soup, fried potato strips, or mashed potato salad. In short, there were countless uses for potatoes, so they ordered twenty thousand pounds outright.
The other vegetables were indispensable as well: eight thousand pounds of tomatoes, two thousand pounds of carrots, six thousand pounds of eggplants, and three thousand pounds of chili peppers. Chrysanthemum greens, celtuce, napa cabbage, celery, cucumbers, broccoli, spinach, bamboo shoots, and enoki mushrooms—two thousand pounds of each.
After sweeping through the vegetable shops, they hurried to buy seasonings.
Salt was, of course, an indispensable daily necessity. Whenever Luo Jiu stocked up on anything, she emphasized variety, so they bought lake salt, sea salt, iodized salt, non-iodized salt, pickling salt, and refined salt. In the end, they stocked up on three thousand pounds of salt in total—enough to last them until the next-next generation.
Soy sauce: two thousand bottles of light soy sauce and eight hundred bottles of dark soy sauce.
Wang Shouyi Thirteen-Spice was bought by the case. Each case contained one hundred boxes. Since only a little of the stuff was needed to add plenty of flavor, they ordered just five cases.
Lianhua monosodium glutamate, ten cases. Chicken bouillon, ten cases.
When they went to buy vinegar, they followed the smell to an authentic Shanxi Mature Vinegar shop. The owner was from Shanxi and sold only loose Ninghua Prefecture vinegar.
Luo Jiu looked at the large barrel he used to dispense the vinegar. As soon as he opened it, a sharp, fragrant sourness filled the air. It was completely different from the vinegar she usually smelled.
Luo Jiu asked, “How many pounds is this barrel?”
The owner replied, “A hundred pounds.”
“We’ll take twenty barrels.”
The owner froze. “What are you up to? You’re joking, right?”
Luo Jiu smiled. “I’m serious. We’ll pay right now. Please deliver it to our door.”
Even after taking the receipt, the owner still stared blankly, unable to believe it. “Would it be all right if I deliver it this afternoon? I need to take a nap. I’m a little sleepy and muddled—I feel like I’m dreaming.”
“Sure. Just make sure you deliver it. Don’t forget.”
They had originally planned to pick up Grandma as soon as they finished buying the seasonings. But after leaving the vinegar shop, they came across another shop selling tofu. A sign on it read: “Purely handmade by a master craftsman.”
Standing outside the shop, they could smell the delicate fragrance of tofu. Cheng Yaoyao was tempted. “Tofu can also be used to make lots of delicious food: pan-fried tofu, stewed tofu, and, after freezing it, frozen tofu. Frozen tofu stewed with pork and pickled cabbage is delicious.”
“Then let’s buy some.” Luo Jiu pulled her inside to choose some.
The tofu here was made into large slabs, each containing roughly two hundred pieces. Cheng Yaoyao said that in the past, the people who made tofu in her village would make only two slabs early every morning. They would walk through the front and back villages calling, “To~fu~,” and it would soon all be sold.
The freshly made tofu was still hot. The owner cut off a piece for them to taste.
It was soft and tender in her mouth, and indeed fragrant and delicious. “Mmm, it’s good. We’ll take it. One hundred slabs of white tofu and one hundred slabs of frozen tofu. Make up the full amount as quickly as possible and deliver it all to No. 88.”
Tofu was cheap. The two hundred slabs cost only twelve thousand yuan in total. But from the grain shop all the way to now, their total spending had already exceeded one million, and there were still countless things left to buy. Luo Jiu had not yet made a detailed budget, and she was beginning to feel uneasy. She was eager to pick up Grandma first, then return to the villa to regroup.
Everyone bought these things first, then hurriedly drove to the village.
Sun Feng’e was feeding chickens in the courtyard when several young women suddenly pushed open the gate and came in. Cheng Yaoyao called loudly, “Grandma, hurry up and pack your things. We’re leaving right away.”
“Leaving? Where are we going?”
“To my house, Grandma. Hurry and get in the car.”
Zhong Jialing and Luo Jiu each took one of Sun Feng’e’s arms and helped her into the car. She immediately grew frantic. “What happened? Is there another epidemic?”
Luo Jiu hurriedly said, “Yes, there’s another epidemic. This time it’s worse than before, and the whole world has to stay home in quarantine. We have to take you away quickly, or it’ll be dangerous.”
Sun Feng’e’s face went pale with fright. “What are we going to do? What will we eat if we’re quarantined? There’s half a vat of pickled cabbage inside—hurry and fish it out and bring it along. And there are still twenty chickens in the backyard!”
“All right, all right.” Luo Jiu pressed her down into her seat. “Just wait here. We’ll go pack everything.”
Cheng Yaoyao found several burlap sacks. She packed Grandma’s personal belongings inside the house, while Feng Qi and Luo Jiu each stood in one corner of the courtyard, using sacks to catch the chickens.
Zhong Jialing had originally gone to fish out the pickled cabbage. But the moment she opened the vat, the sour smell rushed into her nose so strongly that her brain hurt. When had she ever done this kind of work? She frowned and reached in several times, but before her fingertips even touched the brine, she was already so uncomfortable that she felt like vomiting.
She hurried into the house and said to Cheng Yaoyao, “I can’t do it. You fish it out later.”
Cheng Yaoyao replied, “Go catch chickens with them. Leave the pickled cabbage to me.”
The scene around the chicken coop was even more violent. It was complete chaos, with chickens and dogs scattering everywhere and feathers flying through the air.
As soon as Zhong Jialing entered, a large rooster charged straight at her with a vicious look. Terrified, she screamed while frantically clawing at the air with both hands, ending up with a handful of feathers.
Laughing, Luo Jiu caught the rooster in a burlap sack. “This work isn’t suitable for you. Pick up the eggs in the coop and wait in the car.”
Zhong Jialing nodded, still shaken. Meanwhile, Feng Qi and Luo Jiu pounced first to one side, then the other, working so hard that they were drenched in sweat. At last, they caught all the chickens and stuffed them into the burlap sacks, then tied the mouths of the sacks tightly with rope.
“Ugh~” A strange sound came from the chicken coop.
The two of them went over to take a look. Zhong Jialing raised a hand smeared with chicken droppings, looking aggrieved. “The eggs actually have shit on them…”
It made her gag so badly that her eyes turned red.
The two of them burst out laughing. Luo Jiu said, “Eggs come out of a chicken’s backside, so of course there’s shit on them. Forget it, forget it. We’ll put all of this directly into the space. Otherwise the whole car will smell like chicken manure, and I’m afraid you’ll get sick and vomit while driving.”
The chickens were put into the space by the sackful, the eggs by the basketful, and they did not bother fishing out the pickled cabbage either, instead putting the entire vat into the space.
Everyone hurriedly finished packing with all hands on deck. Once they got into the car, someone said, “Oh—where’s Grandma?”
Cheng Yaoyao was just about to get out when Sun Feng’e emerged from the storeroom carrying a large crock.
The old woman held it as if it were a precious treasure. “This is the salted vegetable lumps I pickled. We can’t forget them. Later, Grandma will stir-fry some meat with shredded salted vegetables for you.”
After all that commotion, the four of them finally returned to the villa at No. 88.
They settled Grandma in the elderly room on the first floor. But Sun Feng’e could not sit still. The moment she put down her things, she began bustling around, insisting on making them lunch.
Cheng Yaoyao simply took out one of the live chickens they had just caught. With one swift stroke of the knife, she slaughtered it. After boiling a pot of water and scalding the chicken, the four of them gathered around it and began plucking its feathers.
“Oh, this isn’t work for you girls! Studying has already worn you out. Go and rest—Grandma will cook for you.”
That suited them just fine. The four of them could use this time to take care of their own matters. They had a lot to do.
Zhong Jialing patted Luo Jiu on the shoulder. “I’m going to call my parents. The computer’s in the study—use it if you need to.”
Luo Jiu nodded, then looked back at Feng Qi. “Are you going to notify them?”
“They” referred to Feng Qi’s parents. However, ever since Feng Qi was six years old, her parents had divorced and never looked after her again.
A few years ago, when Feng Qi had won the national martial arts championship, she contacted them, only to learn that they had long since started separate families of their own.
They had had new children. They did not want the old one anymore.
Feng Qi held her phone and hesitated. For the past few years, she had spent every holiday in her dormitory. During the New Year, she either stayed with Cheng Yaoyao at Grandma’s house or lived with Luo Jiu in the small place Luo Jiu rented. She had almost forgotten that she still had family in this world.
Had they forgotten me too?
Feng Qi opened her contacts. She had bought this phone with her competition prize money. She was used to living poorly, and even after she had money, she still did not dare spend it, always afraid that one day she might be hungry again. So she had spent only a little over one thousand yuan on a phone with limited storage. After three years of use, it had already become sluggish.
She tapped at the screen for a long time, composing a text message:
“My classmate’s parents said there’ll be a food shortage next week. Stock up on some food and try not to go out. Take care of yourselves. Don’t worry about me—I’m with my friends, and we have food and are very safe.”
Luo Jiu turned on the computer and began making a budget spreadsheet. Then she heard Feng Qi give a mocking snort. Feng Qi was laughing so hard on the sofa that she doubled over, tears spilling from her eyes.
“What happened? What are you laughing at?”
Luo Jiu took the phone from her hand. The screen displayed: “Message sent, but rejected by the recipient.”
Two text messages, sent to two different numbers, had received exactly the same reply. Feng Qi’s parents had actually blocked her.
For a moment, Luo Jiu did not know how to comfort her. But Feng Qi laughed even louder.
“Hahahaha, I actually… I actually told them not to worry about me? Hahahaha, what a colossal joke.”
She laughed, but even after she wiped away her tears, more kept welling up and streaming down her face. “Why would they worry about me? They’d probably love for me to die so I’d never disturb their happy lives again. This is too funny. My stomach hurts from laughing.”
Seeing her force a smile despite how clearly miserable she was, Luo Jiu could not help feeling a painful tightness in her nose.
“This is better, too. Haven’t you heard that saying? Having shallow ties with one’s family is a blessing; the cultivation is in owing each other nothing.
“Since they don’t want you, we don’t want them either. We’ll owe each other nothing and leave each other alone. Even if they end up as corpses in the street someday, you won’t have to care.
“Besides, think about it. They don’t have a space, they haven’t been reborn, and they have no money. How could they possibly live better than us? From now on, we’ll eat whatever we want and have everything we need.
“You want milk tea, right? Later, we’ll stock up on twenty thousand cups. That’ll be enough for you to drink for fifty years.”
Feng Qi raised her sleeve and wiped her face. “That’s right. Sister Jiu has my back. We’ll just live and see who can outlive us.”
As the two of them were talking, Cheng Yaoyao came thundering upstairs.
“The truck delivering the rice is here. I had them unload it in the front yard. How’s the budget coming along? Is it enough for us to stock up on supplies in a frantic rush?”